Dmitry Bivol Shocks The World | Thoughts On Bivol Dethroning Canelo.
Bivol Rewrites History.
Though Canelo might be the greatest Mexican fighter ever, his loss to the world champion Dmitry Bivol, might be the most American of some time – as it would appear greed, and ideas of being invincible might have fueled him to the roughest night of his career.
Bivol outboxed Canelo from start to finish, it was easier to find rounds Bivol won as opposed to rounds Canelo could’ve won. Canelo relied on his power and a strong self-belief that his power would hurt Bivol, a natural light heavyweight, who is big for the weight class.
The fight was as muted as the buzz for the fight, as the fight week promotion was next to nothing, for a DAZN PPV that Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano get a lot more of a push.
The end result left us with a lot of new questions. One of which is, did we just meet a new icon of boxing in Dmitry Bivol, the man who in Russian amateur boxing was always in Artur Beterbiev’s shadow, only to now have a chance to be the best of his era, can he live up to that?
Is Canelo too rich to care? It seems as though Canelo bought into his own immortality and wealth, and looked absolutely pissed as well as frustrated when Bivol refused to retreat from Canelo’s power shots which had been stopping the other giants of the division. Is it arrogance, naiveness, or just too much success for Canelo, but now one year after being the best fighter in the sport, Canelo now has to go through what Anthony Joshua is going through after losing to Usyk – can he come back, and at what weight?
A part of hopes they can contest a rematch at 168 lbs for all of Canelo’s belts as Bivol had talked about going down to fight Canelo at that weight in the past. Regardless, Bivol just ended the era of the unbeatable Canelo, as from this point on each person who fights Canelo, will no longer see him as the trending upward, a cultural icon, but as a beatable fighter with a name.
Boxing is a cold game, and now Canelo and his team have had back-to-back high-profile losses with Canelo and Oscar Valdez, so if they want to change something now should be the motivation.
When Canelo lost to Floyd he adapted aspects of Floyd’s style, when he seemingly lost to Golovkin, but it was called a draw, he became a puncher like Golovkin. What does Canelo become next after this loss?
Bivol changed his life, destiny, and future with one fight as he becomes one of the greatest Russian boxers of all time with this win.
We waited for the dust to settle, and now it appears Canelo wants to challenge Bivol at 168 lbs., super middleweight, the weight he says he is most comfortable at.
This is a developing story, that further leaves Gennadiy Golovkin without an exciting for probably yet another year. This makes it essentially four summers in a row Golovkin has been waiting for his third fight with Canelo, which is nearly half a decade of inactivity.
undercard
A rather sleepy undercard occurred at the top of the bill of the pay-per-view card as Montana Love, a recent signee of Matchroom Boxing, dropped Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela, only for Gollaz to drop Love in the second round. Rather than a firefight, we saw two fighters who had a lot on the line, take turns exchanging punches, and were not very excited to taste each other’s power. This really makes me question the ceiling of Love.
Welterweight Shakhram Giyasov dropped Christian Gomez, three times, but still got rocked in the bout as the fight looked like the same round on repeat. A good win for Giyasov, but I didn’t learn a ton.
Joselito Velazquez got a sixth-round TKO over Jose Soto in a sneaky good flyweight fight.
Zhilei Zhang got a first-round KO over Scott Alexander, who took the fight on less than a week’s notice.
Lightweight prospect Marc Castro got a win. Castro is building his way up to some form of a developmental title. Castro will be solid once he gets to the top of the division.
The upset of the undercard, Aaron Silva stopped Alexis Espino, who is signed to Matchroom Boxing in a mild shocker.
Club Shows
Lee Reeves and Bryan Acosta won in separate bouts in Canada. Both captured regional belts, the action was on DAZN.
Ryan Rozicki got a split decision over Yamil Alberto Peralta. The decision which would crown a WBC international cruiserweight champion, last tier prior to a world title shot, was so widely disliked that the WBC is deciding to keep the title vacant, as BoxRec lists that all three of the judges were also from Canada, and didn’t represent the world. Rozicki lost in the first-ever bridgerweight world title to Oscar Rivas last year.
On this card, lightweight contender/prospect Lucas Bahdi got a knockout win. In a year or so, he should enter into the conversation of a Capital G Guy in the sport, and could end up with an American co-promoter.
Super bantamweight Mauren Shea got a win over Calista Silgado in New York. After the fight, I got a press release in which she called for a world title fight next.
The main event saw an upset as welterweight Paulo Cesar Galdino defeated New York’s Danny Gonzalez via a split decision.
MMA In 500 Words Or Less
The UFC saw the lightweight champ Charles Oliviera defeat Justin Gaethje in a highlight reel submission fashion. This came after his own defeat to the scale, in which Oliviera lost his belt by 1/2 a pound the day prior, even though some thought the scale might have had issues. Nonetheless, Oliviera got dropped only to defeat an exciting fighter.
The co-main saw Carla Esparza pick up her second title and second career win over Rose Namajunas. The fight looked as though both fighters were tense as inactivity was the story of the fight as even the broadcast spoke on how the fight was sport, and not entertainment.
Michael Chandler, a UFC lightweight donning the Mike Tyson nickname of “Iron”, and sporting a physique most people who pay for a personal trainer want, defeated UFC legend Tony Ferguson via a highlight-reel front kick. The knockout was similar to the final scene in The Karate Kid, but more violent.
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Bellator held an event, Friday in Paris, France, that saw heavyweight champ Ryan Bader defeat Cheick Kongo. The rest of the card looked like a compilation of older fighters we still remember and our fond of such as, Yoel Romero and Lorenz Larkin winning in separate bouts.
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On ESPN, the PFL’s star athlete Kayla Harrison got a three-round decision over Marina Mokhnatkina. Other notables on the card, Carlos Leal defeated Ray Cooper II via a three-round decision as well as Anthony Pettis and Rory MacDonald won in separate bouts.
